1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable carrier for the storage and flat display, both indoors and outdoors, of blueprints, graphs, maps, and other large documents.
2. Prior Art
Architects, engineers, contractors, and others involved in the building trades often need to transport important contract documents, particularly blueprints or surveys, to project sites for flat display and reference during the construction process. A similar need to transport and display documents in a field setting exists among cartographers, surveyors, and others involved in the mapping and surveying trades.
Typically, these large documents, sometimes 24 inches×36 inches in size, or larger, are bundled together in sets by design professionals or surveyors. These bulky documents are often difficult to transport and challenging to display, especially in field conditions. Moreover, because most construction projects require many months and sometimes years to complete, these important documents are subject to deterioration or damage, as they are subject to repeated handling, the elements, and/or unprotected storage.
At best, these documents are usually rolled up and put in cardboard or plastic storage tubes. More commonly, they are rolled up and secured by a rubber band. In either event, when the documents are removed from the tube or unbanded, having been rolled-up, they are hard to keep flat for display purposes. Additionally, the edges are subject to tears, curling, and warping. Folding these large documents is generally not favored as the creases degrade the integrity of the information depicted, making tearing more likely and the taking of scaled measurements more difficult. In many instances, the sheer bulk of a rolled set of blueprints makes folding an unrealistic option.
As noted, the elements pose a significant threat to the integrity of these documents as the weeks and months of construction or field work progress. Sun tends to fade the ink, making the detailed information of the face of the documents more difficult to read. Rain and other forms of precipitation tend to warp and cause irregularities on the surface of the documents. Wind tends to rip at the documents and cause tears. Dust, dirt, and other debris tend to obscure or damage the face of the documents. Given the importance of obtaining accurate scaled measurements from these documents during the construction process, these are serious problems.
Compounding the problem of preserving these documents in a useable condition over protracted periods of time, the documents themselves are unwieldy and difficult to display. For instance, early in construction, blueprints are often unrolled across the hood or tailgate of a vehicle and held down with rocks or other available weights. In other instances, these documents are spread out on available surfaces, or simply left lying around the project site, unprotected, until needed.
On projects of significant scope, the number of blueprints, surveys, and other large drawings becomes quite large. Keeping them organized and quickly accessing and displaying the needed document in a flat fashion becomes increasingly difficult.
The foregoing problems are not unique to just blueprints and other construction-related documents. Other documents, large and small, need to be kept in good condition for long periods of time, while being accessible for quick and easy flat display. These documents include photographs, maps of all kinds, surveys, and other written/graphical reports.
Inventors have created several types of holders and folders to contain and view blueprints and photographic prints. U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,373 to Bryan (1982) discloses a combined flat sheet display device and rolled sheet holder. The holder tube is intended solely to store rolled blueprints and does not function, as the present invention does, to allow documents to be retracted to and unfurled from the cylinder onto a flat sheet display. There is no functional relationship between the cylindrical tube and the flat sheet display in the '373 Patent. The flat display is static, relatively small in dimension, and intended solely to protect a single document (e.g. a building permit) from the elements. The invention is not portable, but rather intended to remain at the project site as a storage device for blueprints and a display for the building permit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,075 issued to Donnelly (1991) discloses a portable carrier for containing and displaying blueprints in an outdoor work environment. The carrier is comprised of a rectangular sheet of substantially rigid material and expandable living hinge with restraining clamps to lock large blueprints in place. Essentially, the carrier is a folio which is dimensioned to be approximately the size of at least one of the documents contained within, plus a substantial border around the contained documents. In the case of blueprints, this carrier is in excess of 2 feet in width and 3 feet in length. Blueprints, or other display documents, cannot be retracted into the carrier and no provision is made to secure the portable carrier, magnetically or mechanically, to common construction surfaces, such as vehicle hoods, tailgates, or wall studs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,230 issued to Brink and Keable (1995) discloses another folder adapted to contain and view photographic prints and the like. The folder provides a means for viewing a series of photographs arranged and mounted in a manner similar to the pages of a book. In its preferred embodiment, the invention is a book-like folder including a relockable closure. It does not allow for the display of large construction documents, like blueprints, and does not permit the documents or flat display surface to be retracted from and rolled into a compact storage cylinder after display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,460 issued to Flynn (1998), discloses yet another portfolio type device to carry and display blueprints. Sealed plastic sheet protectors are fastened in a ringed binder enclosed by a durable outer shell. The book style case fixes the substantial dimensions of the device. It must be large enough to accommodate oversized sheet protectors when in the closed position. It does not allow for the unfurling and retraction of the documents into a compact cylindrical storage tube. The portfolio does not provide a means for magnetically or mechanically fastening the flat display to common construction site surfaces, including vehicle surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,237 issued to Curry (2004) discloses a portable carrier for containing and displaying blueprints in an outdoor work environment. It comprises a rectangular box of substantially rigid material and has removable legs to allow it to be laid flat or posted on a wall for field use. The device, being of fixed dimensions, does not allow for blueprints and the flat display surface to be retracted after use. Its portability is limited by its large and rigid geometry.
Each of the foregoing inventions suffers from a number of common disadvantages.
a) Their folio, book-like, or box-like geometry is not suited to unfurling and retracting the blueprints and other documents into a compact storage case following display.
b) None of the devices allow for the unfurling of rolled documents onto a flat display surface and the retracting of those same documents into a compact storage case. In the case of the '373 patent for example, there is no functional relationship between the storage tube and the flat display.
c) None of the devices have magnetic strips to fasten the carrier to the metal surfaces of construction vehicles or to other metallic construction surfaces (e.g. metal tables, or metal wall studs) during flat display.
d) None of the devices have slots designed to receive protruding nail heads to fasten the carrier to other surfaces (e.g. nails protruding from wall studs) during flat display.
e) The true portability of the patented blueprint carriers is limited by the substantial size of the folios or boxes which must be large enough to contain unfolded blueprints. Many of the inventions are not truly compact storage carriers.
f) The expense and bulk of a large book-like or box-like folio carrier means that on a project with a substantial number of blueprints, documents must frequently be transferred into and out of the carrier for display purposes. Having a large number of carriers makes little sense given the cost and cumbersome dimensions. Older and damaging means of storage (e.g. tubes or rubber banding rolled blueprints) are likely used as fall backs for managing excess documents.
f) The fasteners used to display the documents are, in some instances, capable of creasing, damaging or tearing the paper being held.